Ruth: Is She The One?

I don't even know how to start to share what has been happening... It's broken our hearts and has made us cry out to God for help and discernment. Suffice to say, there has been more drama in the day care front...

If you look at a few blogs past, you will remember that Daniel had only just started at his 3rd family day care, with Ms. Stacey. Well, it turns out that Daniel did not adjust that well...

Last Monday, we got a phone call from Stacey saying that she was having a really hard day with Daniel because he would start to cry if she didn't hold him at all times. What? That really didn't sound like Daniel. So off we went to get him and as soon as we arrived and Stacey answered the door, we could hear him crying. We were shocked. We had never seen Daniel that way. He just wasn't himself; it took him a few minutes to relax again even with us holding him.

So what was going on? Well, that is one of the most difficult things about being a parent of an infant: they can't really tell you what they are feeling and we're constantly trying to guess. Is it the teething? Is he getting ill? Is he scared? Does he just not like the environment? Is it the beginning of separation anxiety?

Well, after we stayed for an hour or so, Daniel was back to himself playing independently and happy. We talked at length with Stacey about the importance of us trying to work together to help Daniel adjust because we really did not want to change his day care again. That thought, just broke our hearts...

Well, the next day we brought his toys and bumbo seat as well as his teething gel and Daniel had a good day. But on Friday, Stacey said that he had been fine but that as soon as her sons got back home from school in the afternoon, he started to cry again - it seemed that he was scared of them. And interestingly, that previous Monday, the boys had not gone to school and so had been home all day. Even though they are well brought up, they did get a bit rowdy at times (understandably, for their age) which could scare Daniel. However, Stacey then admitted that she just felt she had taken too much responsibility and could not handle having Daniel. She was very stressed and was even thinking about stopping doing day care all together... So now we are thinking, was it her tension that upset Daniel? We just don't know...

All we know is that on Friday, we found ourselves in the same position that we had been in a few times before: What to do about Daniel's day care? This resulted in many emotions and questions: Has our son been traumatized by all these changes? Should I continue working? Why is it so hard to find good and long-term care? Have we been unwise in our choices or just have poor judgement? And finally, what are we going to do now?

So after much thought and prayer, we decided that we would not try another family day care again. The best option for Daniel that we could come up with was having a nanny at home. Yes, this option is a lot more expensive (which is why we didn't consider it first) but has so many benefits, as long as we could find the right person...

Well, we found Ruth. After checking her references and interviewing her, we felt that she would be perfect. She has a lot of experience working with children, has excellent references and is just very warm with Daniel.

I spent the whole day with them yesterday showing her Daniel's routine and felt very happy with her, the way she interacted with Daniel, her professionalism, our conversations, her maturity, sense of responsibility, etc. As much as we can tell, Ruth is great and Daniel is in good hands. One interesting thing about Ruth is that she is Peruvian and speaks very little English. So Daniel is now going to be exposed to a third language: Spanish (in case you're worried, my Spanish is good and so I have no problem in communicating with her).

Of course, due to our difficult day care experiences so far, we are a little hesitant about believing that Ruth is actually "the one." I guess, only time will tell if she is. But we really do hope so, we really want Daniel to be well the 3 days a week that I'm working and have stability.

Gosh, it's not easy being a parent... As Jonny likes to remind me, we just need to do the best that we can each day and resolve the problems that we encounter one at a time, with faith in God and His sovereignty.

Anyway... here are some pictures that I took of Ruth and Daniel yesterday. She is with him today and from next week, will be with him on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Daniel and Ruth at the end of the first day...

Thank God, Daniel Likes Her and She Makes Him Laugh and Smile...

Takumi is Back!

Our Japanese neighbor and her adorable three children are back from Japan, including Daniel's first friend, Takumi, who is about 6 weeks older than Daniel. We are excited that they are back and were really looking forward to continue getting Takumi's outgrown clothes, which we had gratefully received during the first 2 months of Daniel's life.

BUT....we were all amazed to realize that Daniel is now bigger than Takumi!!! So no more hand-me-downs from him... In fact, we talked about passing on Daniel's clothes on to Takumi! Luckily, our friends Dirck and Rochelle gave us lots of their son's clothes recently and I discovered that we have a fantastic Salvation Army Thrift Store close to our house - I was able to stock Daniel up for the winter for about $20! And yes, Takumi, we'll happily pass those on to you soon!

Daniel and Takumi questioning: "Are you sure this is that old friend of mine?"

Daniel explaining to Takumi..."Yes, my friend, I started to eat a lot while you were away and well, you see, we just eat a lot less fish over here..."

Here is the proof: Daniel at 2 months just a few days before Takumi left for Japan...

Daniel is 8 Months Old Today!

Wow, we can't believe that our baby boy is exactly 8 months old! In many ways, it's been a long 8 months with all the change that Daniel has brought into our lives but it's also flown by - especially when we look back at old photos or blogs and are amazed at how much he has grown and developed!

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a cute video of Daniel that I took last Friday which captures him at the end of 7 months perfectly: sitting each time better but often followed by a loss of balance (which he loves!); flapping his arms around in excitement; energetic and happy. And if you look carefully, you will also get to see his first teeth! What a joy he is!




P.S. In case you are wondering, the pacifier in the video I gave him to play with as a toy. Daniel just never liked the pacifier; even though there were several desperate times in the first few months that we tried and wished he had!

Daniel and Ms. Stacey

After all that we went through to find Daniel a good and long-term family day care (you can refresh your memories here and here), we have had to change day care again! Azad's family has been going through a difficult time financially and so she started to get many more children - too many and it started to become a little chaotic! Also, because Daniel is part-time (only 3 days a week), she kept telling us that if another full-time infant arrived, she would have to choose the other child - even though she loved Daniel. All of this led us to change day care and to choose Ms Stacey.

Stacey was our second choice the last time we looked around for day cares and we chose Azad instead, primarily because it was much closer to our home. Stacey's day care is small, right now she only has one 4 year old and Daniel (she said that the maximum she will ever have is 3 children) and she has guaranteed Daniel's place, even though he is part-time. So we feel more comfortable with this arrangement. She is a sweet and calm lady and has very well behaved boys (ages:9, 7 and 5) who play with Daniel in the afternoon for a couple of hours after they get back from school.

Of course it was hard to move Daniel to his 3rd day care in his very short life (I never imagined it would be this way!), but at least, so far, he has not shown any signs of separation anxiety and continues to be adaptable. We hope that this time it will work for the long-term! Daniel is now beginning his second week with Stacey and has adjusted very well. This morning when we arrived he smiled as soon as he saw her and squealed when he saw Sheridan, his 4 year old friend.

We do miss Azad though; she was wonderful with Daniel and he loved it there. We will always remember how well she looked after him and how much peace she gave us especially when he first started, at only 4 months of age. Azad was also sad to say good-bye and we agreed that we would visit once in a while and that she would be our back-up day care (in case Stacey cannot take Daniel on a specific day for personal reasons).

***

Other updates on Daniel:

- He's got three more teeth coming in on the top gum! His teething process is happening so fast, he had only just started getting his first two teeth a couple of weeks ago and now soon he will have 5! Amazing, I never thought it would be so quick!

- He is eating so much now, about 6 - 8 oz of food per meal! Where does it all go I always wonder as he eats and eats?! :-) He's now eating a variety of different vegetables and fruits and on Saturday we gave him chicken for the first time which he loved! Now when we put him in his high chair he starts to get excited waiting for his food. Amazing progress! Only a few weeks ago he wouldn't eat at all, remember?

Busy in October: See Slideshow

The last few weeks we have been very busy and it's been hard to blog due to: spending time with Granny Heather before she returned back to Malaysia last Saturday night; juggling work and family life; spending time with my cousin Josani and girls on Sundays; catching up with friends, etc. We've had many wonderful moments and enjoyed the wonderful warm fall days before it suddenly turned cold. It's been a joy being able to do a lot more with Daniel; we've had fun. See the slideshow below of some of our favourite photos of the last few weeks.






P.S. If you click on the slide show, it will take you to Picasa and then you can download any of the photos you like! I just love technology!

Daniel's Rapid Development at 7 Months

The last couple of weeks have been really busy and so much has been happening - I'll try to write a separate blog about that and post some photos soon. But tonight, I want to quickly write an update on Daniel's development because so much has been changing that I know I'll forget if I don't. Here are a few things from the top of my head that are exciting to us about Daniel's development:

- He is sitting now for much longer unsupported - it's so sweet to see and he gets very excited, flapping his hands up and down.

- Just in the last couple of days he has been repeatedly saying sounds such as "ba-ba" "wa-wa" and even, yes, "ma-ma!" He also said "be-be" which in Portuguese means "Baby!" Should I consider that his first word? :-)

- He has two teeth that we can SEE (if you look carefully, still quite small) on the middle of his bottom gum. First he got one tooth and then now, a second one is coming. They feel sharp and now I'm wondering about what to do in terms of brushing his teeth - we haven't started yet but I guess we should soon! Any advice on this, please do let me know! Right now he doesn't like me to even touch his teeth with my finger, so how should I do the brushing thing?

- He loves to drop his toys from the high chair and watch them at a distance; he does this over and over again, so cute (and of course, we are happy to pick them up for him! :-)). He also loves to put his toys to the side of his bumbo seat, one by one, and tries to reach them and put them back on the tray - this can keep him entertained for a long time!

- He's started to enjoy the exersaucer a lot more and even played for over an hour in it the other day! He's also starting to put a lot more weight on his legs and stands for some time in the exersaucer.

- He's been eating so well now and even has sat in high chairs at the mall and in a seafood restaurant yesterday in Annapolis. I'm also getting more confident feeding him solids in public even though it's still very messy!

- He is sleeping through the night without a dream feed!! Jonny has been faithfully giving him a "dream feed" in his sleep for months now between 10:30-11:00 pm but in the past week, Daniel has been refusing it (I think he's just not hungry). So we decided to just stop offering it a couple of nights ago and he has been able to sleep through without this extra feed! This has been soooo exciting for us because it now means that Jonny can come to bed with me again, even at 8 pm if he wants to! Wow, I thought removing the dream feed would be so much more difficult, but I guess that he is now eating enough solids to sustain him!

- It now seems that he is down to only 2 naps a day.The first one is about 2 hours after he wakes up and then the second one sometime in the afternoon, about 3 hours after his morning nap. He's been starting to have one longer nap (about an hour) but at least one of them will be his usual 30 minutes. Anyway, what a difference it has made that he is awake for so much longer and we don't have to put him down for naps every hour as we did for months. I remember he used to have 5 to 6 naps a day and this almost drove me crazy! We've come a long way! :-)


Wow, our baby is growing so fast! It truly is a joy watching his development and wondering what he will do next; thank you Lord for this experience!

Special Photos of Daniel at 7 Months

We've been wanting to get studio photos of Daniel since he was born and have finally managed to do so! We thought the photographer did a great job of capturing Daniel; babies move around so much and to get him looking and smiling at the exact moment is not easy! We are particularly pleased that Granny Heather was able to be there and that we now have a special picture of "the three generations." I personally was a bit disappointed with how I looked in our family photo but Daniel and Jonny came out great. Here are the photos!

(P.S. Daniel wore shoes for the first time that day - courtesy of Josie and girls!)

Family in Town...

We can now say that we have "family in town"; that to us is a very special and welcome phenomenon! My cousin Josani and her two wonderful daughters, Natasha and Giulia, are now living in the area! We have already started to spend a lot of time with them at the weekends and are looking forward to seeing them more and more.

It's funny because the girls have made me acutely aware that I need desperate training in "modern history" since I hadn't heard of the "pop groups" they listen to or experienced the latest technology such as the "Wii." This is so funny because I remember clearly being a teenager and feeling that my older family members had no clue about the "real world!" And now, here I am, in the exact same position! So Nana and Giugiu, I promise to get up to speed on this - I may have to write things down though cause I already forgot the name of the oldest brother of the "Jonas Brothers" - is it Nick? :-)

Jonny and Daniel with Josie, Natasha and Giulia

Having fun together...

Josie playing with Daniel - he was talking to the bottle!

And for a special treat, here is a cute video of Daniel laughing with Giulia - so happy I was able to record this special moment as we were walking in their neighborhood!

The Experience of Introducing Solids Part II

Well, thank God, little Daniel (who is now 7 months old!) is eating much better now! Thanks for the advice I received after my previous blog! After our 3 day break, we started again with pears for 3 days before trying other foods and he's now actually enjoying the experience! Hurray!!! He hasn't complained or gagged in a while and we've been finishing each meal with him happy! We even gave him prunes this past weekend to help him get through some "poop issues" :-) and after thinking briefly about the new and strong taste, he ate several teaspoons with no problem! Of course prunes also create a lot more mess as seen in the photos below! We are now getting more excited about introducing, slowly, more and more new flavors and then a mixture of them! We just keep learning that everything just happens at the right time; no point panicking or trying to speed things up - hopefully I'll remember this the next time I start to worry about him reaching the next new milestone...

Thinking about it...

I want more! Toy or prunes?

What a relief: Happy after eating prunes!

Happy Fourth Birthday Dear Holly!

Sweet beautiful Holly, the daughter of my dear friend Kristen, is now 4 years old! I first met Holly when she was 6 weeks old and have been at all her birthdays so far. It has been very special watching her grow up into a friendly, sweet, affectionate, loving and precious little girl - we just love her so much! She is so funny and witty; we love reading "The Kids' Perspective" - Kristen's record of what Holly says! We had fun celebrating her birthday last Friday and especially seeing her excitement as her best friend Riya arrived!

Beautiful birthday table that Kristen prepared for Holly

Holly and Riya: So excited to be friends!

Holly and Daniel (7 months exactly!)